Vol. 511 No. 1
77 Mr. Allen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the funding, if any, which will be available to allow the NOW programmes to continue until December 1999; and the funding, if any, she will make available from the Exchequer to allow these programmes to continue. [23910/99]
80 Mr. M. Higgins asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will make arrangements to establish a fund within her Department which will meet the temporary shortfall in funds from Europe arising from the inordinate delays in the funding of projects under the NOW programme. [23787/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 77 and 80 together.
The employment initiative, of which NOW is a strand, has operated since 1995 and will continue until the end of 1999-early 2000. Over the course of the programme, delays have been experienced in receiving European social fund aid which have created difficulties for some project promoters participating in NOW.
While a tranche of funds for the employment initiative was recently received from the European Commission, the amount received was not sufficient to meet all outstanding claims. However, a part-payment – half – of 1999 second advance is at present being made to all NOW projects. My Department has made a further claim to the European Commission for the outstanding amounts and we expect to receive such funding early in the New Year. We will continue to vigorously pursue the European Commission in relation to the outstanding moneys.
